Making & Wastage Calculator
What does a piece cost before your own margin? Enter a gross weight and karat, then wastage and making charge, to see the pre-margin cost — built for US jewellers and goldsmiths pricing a piece before markup.
Making & Wastage Calculator
UnavailableChecking the platform reference…Enter a gross weight and karat, then wastage and making charge, to see the cost before your own margin — using the platform's reference Gold price or a price you enter yourself.
Checking the platform reference price… Fine gold weight is still shown below — switch to Manual price to enter your own and see a cost breakdown.
Enter a gross weight to see the fine gold weight and cost before margin.
How this is calculated
Fine gold weight = gross weight × purity fraction (14K = 14/24, and so on). This needs no market data, so it is shown even when no reference price is available.
Wastage and making charge are both applied to the fine metal value — the common jewellery convention. Cost before margin = fine metal value + wastage + making charge. This is the figure before any dealer margin or tax is added — neither is included here.
What cost before margin means
Cost before margin is the fine metal value, plus wastage, plus making charge — nothing else. It does not include a dealer margin or any tax — those are the next two steps a jeweller would apply on top, and this tool deliberately stops short of them so the pre-margin cost stays visible on its own. For a full retail breakdown including margin and tax, see the Hub's Jewellery Value Calculator.
Common US jewellery purities
US jewellery is most commonly stamped 10K, 14K, 18K, 22K or 24K. Karat states the fraction of pure gold out of 24 parts — 14K is 14/24 fine, for example — and this calculator applies that exact fraction, never a rounded approximation.
- 10K = 41.67% fine
- 14K = 58.33% fine
- 18K = 75.00% fine
- 22K = 91.67% fine
- 24K = 100.00% fine
What this calculator does not do
It does not add a dealer margin, and it does not add or assume any tax. It does not fabricate a Gold price either — when no verified platform reference is available, it says so plainly rather than substituting a stale, guessed, or placeholder figure, and Manual price mode still works with a price you supply. No wastage percentage or making charge is assumed for any market — a blank field contributes exactly zero.